


The Last Time

by LostCauses (Anteros)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, eruri - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 22:58:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13867779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anteros/pseuds/LostCauses
Summary: He comes to him as often as he can, though not as often as he’d like.  Not to the marble mausoleum in Mitras, but here to this quiet corner of the small cemetery behind the old Survey Corps headquarters.A short piece inspired by Yams revealing that Levi returned to Shiganshina to bring Erwin's bones home for burial.





	The Last Time

The last time. 

He comes to him as often as he can, though not as often as he’d like. 

Not to the marble mausoleum in Mitras, with the cold alabaster bust that stares out across the memorial plaza with blank unseeing eyes. Levi went there once, but there is nothing for him there. The cenotaph is empty. Empty as the banal platitudes of those who once damned him as the devil. 

But here, here is different. Everything he ever lived for is here. In this quiet corner of the small cemetery behind the old Survey Corps headquarters. There aren’t many graves, so few come here. So many, many died, but the remains were few and those that returned were fed to the fires, their ashes scattering on the wind to join the countless other soldiers who had fallen before them. 

But _he_ is here, and that’s all that matters. The Commander’s last resting place, a simple grave, with a simple headstone, inscribed with only his name. Erwin Smith. 

This was Levi’s choice. Of course it was. It was Levi who went back for him. Levi who carried him home, a pitifully small bundle wrapped in a cloak. Levi who laid him here to rest. 

He comes to him as often as he can and tells him about all the new discoveries, all the changes. So many, many changes. Levi can’t keep up. He prefers it here. Nothing changes here. Nothing but the ivy and the bindweed that trail across the headstones. The tiny blue flowers that stud the grass in summer, the leaves that drift across the paths in autumn, red as blood. 

Hanji gets antsy if he spends too long here. Calls him into their office or drops by his room for a chat “as a friend Levi, not as your commander.” Levi listens, nods, brushes them off with a shitty remark. Hanji glares at him pointedly with their one good eye, sighs, and leaves. 

He’s not the only one who comes here. Sometimes he finds a flower or a memento placed by the grave. Once there was a childish drawing of the wings of freedom with the initials E.D. inscribed proudly in the corner. 

He met a woman here. Just standing, staring. She looked old, worn down by grief. 

“I wanted to see it for myself,” she said. “I had to know that he’s really dead.” She paused. “He was a monster you know. He killed my only son.”

Rage flares hot in Levi’s chest.

_He gave everything. Everything._

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he says. 

She turns to leave.

“Yours too.” 

He comes to him as often as he can, though not as often as he’d like. 

“Still resting old man?” he asks, as he brushes away some moss that his crept onto the headstone, filling the crevices of the lettering, softening his name in a green haze. 

The knowledge that this time may be the last time constricts his throat. 

“We’re leaving tomorrow,” he says. “I’m sorry it’s taken so long.” 

The wind stirs the dead leaves in the grass at Levi’s feet.

“I don’t know if I’ll be back, Erwin. Maybe I’ll see you on the other side. Wait for me, yeah?”


End file.
